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973 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
- [Dec. 18, 1909. 
George M. Reading, of Whitesboro; A. D. Sid- 
dlely, of Schenectady; A. R. Sawyer, of Bing¬ 
hamton, and James Annin, of Caledonia. 
On motion of Mr. Lawrence the league voted 
$25 to the secretary as a slight token of its 
appreciation of his work during the year. 
A resolution was adopted endorsing the 
Weeks bill in Congress. 
Mr. Culver's resolution to prohibit the sale 
at all times of any part of the carcasses of deer 
and elk was adopted. 
The league adopted a resolution offered by the 
O wasco Lake Anglers’ Club, of Auburn. It 
proposes to close the open season for lake trout 
in Owasco Lake on Nov. 1. 
President Skinner then appointed his com¬ 
mittees, as follows: 
Legislative and Law—Charles T. Ives, of 
Schenectady; Andrew D. Meloy, of New York 
city; M. R. Bingham, of Rome; Edward Mc¬ 
Laughlin, of New York city, and C. H. Wilson, 
of Glens Falls. 
Auditing—W. LI. Thompson, of Alexandria 
Bay; W. S. Morey, of Syracuse, and Nathan 
Hanford, of Ithaca. 
Mr. Dutcher suggested a lecture tour to vari¬ 
ous parts of the State in the interests of his 
society and game protection, saying that he 
thought he could persuade Mr. Pearson to de¬ 
vote a month to the work; the expense to be 
borne by the Audubon Society. His offer was 
accepted and a vote of thanks tendered. 
Syracuse was selected as the place in which 
to hold the next annual meeting. 
Mr. Bingham urged members to give every 
assistance in their power to Commissioner 
Whipple in his efforts to improve the efficiency 
of his department. 
James Annin, of Caledonia, stated that very 
favorable reports had been received during the 
autumn concerning the Hungarian partridges 
put out last spring in the vicinity of Caledonia. 
Adj ourned. 
Kansas Shooting. 
Macksville, Kan., Dec. 7 . —Editor Forest and 
Stream: Chicken shooting in this vicinity was 
a fizzle this season. The laws were not enforced 
and the birds 1 were killed off before the season 
opened. There is no doubt but that Sandy Gris¬ 
wold is right on the prairie chicken question— 
we need later shooting so that young birds shall 
not be the prey of every trigger puller. But 
first we need the laws enforced. 
Duck shooting has been worse than poor. The 
early part of the season was so dry that but few 
birds visited us and heavy rains since have made 
ponds everywhere and the birds are not to be 
reached. 
Quail shooting has been excellent, indeed. 
The birds were not molested out of season and 
are large, strong, well conditioned and game. 
Word has just been received, however, that far¬ 
mers are now slaughtering large numbers of 
them in the snow. This with below zero tem¬ 
peratures makes further sport doubtful. 
As an item of possible interest to admirers 
of the small-bore I may mention that I have 
used through this season my twenty-eight-bore 
| on all the above game with one and a half 
drams powder and three-quarter ounce shot and 
have had much satisfaction out of it. 
Russell. 
Michigan Shooting—1909. 
Saginaw, Mich., Dec. 10 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: I was down at Tobico last month. 
Tobico is a little hunting preserve of 1,600 acres 
owned by four of us. It is separated from 
Saginaw Bay only by a narrow strip of sand 
and oak scrub. It is a duck marsh, one side 
fringed with wild rice and the lower end com¬ 
pletely choked with it. The upper part has pond 
lilies and holes for teal and mallards, while the 
middle stretch with the open water and rushes 
is just the kind of a spot that bluebids and red¬ 
heads like. 
Duck shooting this year has been very poor 
in this locality. Whether the birds have gone 
south or whether they were not here at all wc 
do not know, but we have had no bluebills at 
all. When 1 was shooting at Buffalo Lake, 
Saskatchewan, this year we saw no bluebills, 
although each year for a number of years when 
we have been there before the bluebills have 
been more plentiful than any other bird. 
There were two of us shooting for four days 
at Tobico and we had only thirty-three ducks, 
but this is the assortment—mallards, black duck, 
spoonbill, green-winged teal, widgeon, bluebill, 
goldeneye, butter-ball, white-winged scoter, pin¬ 
tail, gadwall, redhead. Just think of this variety 
at this season of the year! At Tobico, Mr. 
Davis and myself have just completed a little 
shooting house. I intend to send you the plan 
of it some time, for I think it is the best ever, 
and as it is the fourth or fifth shooting lodge 
I have constructed it is but natural that at last 
I should get one about right. We have a low 
roof covered with rubberoid roofing that en¬ 
ables us to make a flatter roof than if we sh.n- 
gled it. The sides of the building are covered 
with cedar shingles stained with creosote stain, 
gray in color. The windows are on the Dutch 
order, with small panes of glass and the sash 
running well to the floor. The floors are of 
clear yellow pine covered with rugs that leave 
about a two-foot margin visible around them. 
The house is plastered with pulp plaster, and we 
have put lots of building paper between the 
double floor and between the double thickness 
of the side walls, so that the house is absolutely 
wind proof and warm, for at duck shooting time 
we get mighty cold weather. A big fire-place 
that actually draws and does not smoke, and it 
is not so big as to make things draughty, is the 
chief attraction of the center room which is the 
living room. It is lighted by a lamp suspended 
from the middle of the ceiling and side lamps 
in various places. A good big veranda, one por¬ 
tion of it inclosed with wire netting for sum¬ 
mer use, a cistern well filled with good rain 
water and a pump in the kitchen sink, a wood 
shed, an automobile shed and barn, a boat house, 
plenty of boats, decoys, etc., and only one hour 
and ten minutes by automobile from Saginaw 
makes it a pretty convenient outfit for four 
people. A year ago on Election Day, after vot¬ 
ing, I went down, got in a duck blind at 1 
o’clock in the afternoon and quit at 4 o’clock 
with twenty-four ducks, eight of them canvas- 
backs and redheads. The next day I got twenty- 
three ducks and came home. This year the 
shooting has not been nearly so good. 
On the North Branch of the Au Sable River 
four of us have 2,200 acres and we call it the 
Au Sable Forest Farm. We have been reforest¬ 
ing this property and have at present about three 
million white pine seedlings in our seed beds and 
expect to put out at least one-half million next 
spring. Six or seven miles of the best trout 
stream in Michigan runs through our land. 
While we were trout fishing last year I occas¬ 
ionally saw a deer. We are anxious to have 
them increase, but the deer season has recently 
opened and a recent letter from up there 
among other things contains the following: 
“I can see hanging from the front steps of our 
neighbor’s house four does. Seventeen deer 
have been killed near here since the season 
opened, fifteen of which were does and fawns 
and only two were bucks. If we had a law 
allowing only the shooting of male deer you see 
it would have prevented the killing of twelve 
does right in this locality. Under a law pro¬ 
viding that only deer wearing horns could be 
killed, as many bucks could be killed in two or 
three years as they now kill of does, bucks and 
fawns put together, and then there would he 
lots of breeding stock left.” 
This year partridges are very scarce in Michi¬ 
gan. Hardly anyone finds more than one or 
two birds in a day’s shooting. Undoubtedly they 
starved to death after the forest fire a year ago. 
Many were killed during those fires, but I my¬ 
self found one bird that could not fly owing to 
the feathers of one wing being badly scorched. 
The poplars were killed, ground food was de¬ 
stroyed by the fire, so that after the snow came 
in the winter there was nothing for the birds to 
subsist on and they literally starved to death. 
Of course there were localities that the fires did 
not touch, and in these undoubtedly the usual 
supply of birds all subsisted, but these green 
spots were soon singled out by the hunters and 
the birds all killed. There seem to be a good 
many quail and the opinion is quite generally 
expressed that if the Legislature really wanted' 
to prohibit the slaughter of these birds, which 
in reality it did not care a thing about, it would 
have prohibited the shooting of partridge and 
allowed the shooting of a moderate bag of quail. 
W. B. Mershon. 
Quail in North Carolina. 
Raleigh, N. C., Dec. 6. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: The rain amounted to very little and 
as a result shooting has so- far been poor almost 
everywhere. Day after day the wonderful 
weather has gone on with the temperature in 
this section not down to the freezing point at 
any time, though frosts have been frequent. It 
is observed that the quail killed are very large 
and in a particularly fine condition, and every¬ 
thing goes to indicate that when really favor¬ 
able weather comes there is going to be some 
good shooting. The Audubon Society has done 
everything it could to protect quail. It has been 
greatly handicapped for funds and in some 
cases has not been able to pay the usual 
reward of ten dollars for information lead¬ 
ing to conviction in cases of violation of the 
game laws. 
Persons who have been in the mountain and 
Piedmont section report an increasing number 
of grouse which in this State are called pheas¬ 
ants. These birds seem to be increasing except 
in the Cherokee Indian country where the In¬ 
dians kill everything. 
Fred A. Olds. 
